June 23, 2010

Happy Meals -- Too Much Happiness?

CBL takes you now to the Center for Science In The Public Interest, a non-profit advocacy group whose described goal is the admirable one of "Transforming The American Diet."
More roughage, fewer fries, CBL can get behind that.

McDonald’s is deliberately marketing directly to unsuspecting little children by offering appealing toys—usually ones related to popular movies or television shows. McDonald’s marketing has the effect of conscripting America’s children into an unpaid drone army of word-of-mouth marketers, causing them to nag their parents to bring them to McDonald’s.

And according to CSPI, marketing to children is inherently unfair and unlawful, because

. . . because young kids are not developmentally advanced enough to understand the persuasive intent of marketing; and (2) unfair to parents, because marketing to children undermines parental authority and interferes with their ability to raise healthy children.

CSPI is threatening McDonald's with suit under a variety of state statutes including, of course, our old friend the Unfair Competition Law, California Business & Professions Code Section 17200.

Has a six-year-old child who cajoles her parents into taking her to McDonald's to get a happy meal "suffered injury in fact," or has she just been fed? And how has she lost money or property as a result of the "unfair competition."